Sterilgarda UHT Cooking Cream 500 ml: the workhorse cream of the professional kitchen
Sterilgarda UHT cooking cream is a long-life cream with 23% fat, packed in a 500 ml ambient Tetra Pak and sold in cases of 12. The UHT (ultra-high-temperature) treatment and carrageenan stabiliser let it withstand cooking without splitting, even in acidic sauces and long reductions, while keeping a clean dairy taste. It is the everyday service cream for sauces, risotto, gratins and spoon desserts, with no cold chain required before opening.
What UHT cooking cream is
Cooking cream is the dairy cream chefs reach for to bind and enrich a dish. The UHT process heats the cream to roughly 140 degrees C for a few seconds and packs it aseptically in Tetra Pak, the technology Sterilgarda helped pioneer in Italy from 1969. The result is a shelf-stable cream that, unlike fresh whipping cream, tolerates higher heat and acidity, the main causes of curdling on a busy line.
The producer: Sterilgarda Alimenti
Sterilgarda Alimenti was founded in 1969 in Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mantua), in the morainic hills of Lake Garda, by a group of dairy entrepreneurs to develop UHT milk and Tetra Pak packaging. Today it is one of Italy's leading milk and cream producers, transforming around 2,300 tonnes of raw material a day across a covered facility of over 85,000 square metres. The same group has supplied Italian professional kitchens with UHT cream and mascarpone for decades.
Sensory profile
The cream is fluid and pourable, ivory-white, with a clean, mild milky note and no cooked or burnt aftertaste despite the UHT treatment. At 23% fat it is rich enough to coat pasta and bind a sauce, yet fluid enough to fold into a batter or a panna cotta base. The carrageenan stabiliser keeps the emulsion together when the cream is reduced or held warm in a bain-marie.
Professional uses
- Cream pasta sauces: base for Roman-school carbonara variants, boscaiola, salmon, gorgonzola and walnut; add off the heat and reduce gently to coat the pasta.
- Risotto mantecatura: 40-50 ml at the end, off the heat, for an extra-creamy finish alongside butter and Parmigiano.
- Green pepper and mushroom sauces: deglaze, add cream and reduce; the UHT cream holds even with white wine or brandy.
- Gratins and baked pasta: bind besciamella-style fillings and cannelloni; resists oven heat without breaking.
- Spoon desserts: panna cotta (500 ml plus 6 g leaf gelatine for 6 moulds), ganache and dessert creams.
Pairings
It works alongside the rest of the LAPA range: Italian 00 flour and tomato for pizza-day prep, Carnaroli rice for risotto, Parmigiano and gorgonzola for sauces, mascarpone for desserts. Keep a case in the dry store as the backup to fresh cream.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Boiling it hard in very acidic sauces (fresh tomato, lemon, white wine) without first reducing the acid: even UHT cream can grain if boiled aggressively, add it toward the end.
- Treating it as whipping cream: at 23% fat it is a cooking cream, not a cream to whip to firm peaks.
- Storing the opened pack at room temperature: once opened it is a fresh dairy product, refrigerate and use within 3-4 days.
Technical specifications
Fat content 23%, net content 500 ml per Tetra Pak, 12 packs per case, stabilised with carrageenan. Energy 956 kJ / 232 kcal per 100 ml. Milk of EU origin, processed in Italy. Ambient storage before opening; refrigerate after opening and consume within 3-4 days.
Delivery and logistics
B2B and B2C delivery throughout Switzerland from the LAPA warehouse in Embrach (Zurich). As an ambient Tetra Pak product no cold chain is required before opening: distribution by the LAPA fleet across Zurich, Winterthur, Uster, Aargau, St. Gallen, Lucerne, Zug and Basel, and for Ticino (Lugano, Bellinzona, Locarno), French-speaking Switzerland (Geneva, Lausanne, Vevey, Sion), Valais and mountain regions (Davos, St. Moritz, Chur) shipping within 24-48 hours via certified couriers (Swiss Post, Planzer, Galliker, Camion Transport). Ideal stock item for restaurants, pizzerias, hotels, delicatessens, gelato shops, pastry labs, Italian grocery stores and private customers.
